STATE EMPLOYMENT

New Zealand Times, Volume XLVI, Issue 10607, 4 June 1920, Page 4

STATE EMPLOYMENT

PREFERENCE TO SOLDIERS. ADVOCATED BY RETURNED MEN. The right of returned soldiers wfec> have sustained physical disabilities by reason of their services abroad to favourable consideration for employment under the Crown has been advocated by local associations for some time, uiid as a consequence, several remits dealing with the matter were forwarded to the annual conference of delegates of the New Zealand Returned Soldiers' Association. ■ These were referred to the repatriation committee, which came to the conclusion that many soldiers have been refused re-employment by the State on account of war injuries. It therefore urged conference to place before the Government its views:—

1. (a) That employment at a wage comparable to what they would have been receiving had they npt enlisted, should be found for them, and should resume- their positions in the samo way as if leave had been grantedthem.

(h) That a separate superannuation hind, subsidised by the. Government, he established in order to remove any difficulties in connection with superam nuation.

(c) That no soldier so re-employed shall lose, by reason of war service, any annual increment to which be would otherwise hare been entitled. 3. That this association _ demands preference for returned soldiers, sailors, and nurses when public appointments are made, and recommends that preference be given by • private employers also. Mr C. W. Batten said that the committee had made their recommendations in respect of “all tho State services” because a quibble had been set uu by the powers that be that the Railway' Department was not under the control of the Public Service Commissioners. ( '‘We are not asking the Public Service Commissioners to exceed the powers conferred on them, hut to exercise those powers, - ’ said Mr T. Hong (Tti Aroha). ‘‘l know of instances where applications by returned soldiers, and competent men at that, hare beer turned down in favour of those sub- v mitted. bt- outsiders.’- The association did not want the Government to employ incompetents, hut it wanted sonu consideration accorded returned do tails who had suffered physical disabilities by reason of their services abroad. A sympathetic interpretation of the regulations should -be insisted

on. • J , The recommendations were adopted,